Today, leading organizations from across the healthcare spectrum joined together to ensure that the United States is prepared to deliver on a major women's health breakthrough - the elimination of most forms of cervical cancer through access to new vaccines and screening. The Partnership to End Cervical Cancer's goal is to ensure the immediate inclusion of cervical cancer vaccines as part of routine preventive healthcare for American women. Cervical cancer, caused by persistent infection with oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV), is the second most prevalent cancer among women today, taking the lives of more than 270,000 women worldwide every year.

"This Partnership is inspired by the enormous opportunity a vaccination will offer to help eliminate most forms of cervical cancer, but we are concerned that the public health landscape is not primed to ensure broad access to vaccines," said Phyllis Greenberger, M.S.W., president and chief executive officer of the Society for Women's Health Research and chair of the Partnership to End Cervical Cancer. "Our goal is to educate women about cervical cancer and to encourage the public health
network, physicians and policymakers to take action to ensure that women have access to medical breakthroughs, such as new
vaccines."

The more than 20 member organizations of the Partnership have formed four key committees to address the major policy and public health challenges to ensuring access to vaccines for women.

-- The Cervical Cancer and HPV Education Committee will increase awareness among women of the human papillomavirus (HPV) as the necessary cause of cervical cancer and the benefits of vaccination in women. -- The Access/Coverage for Vaccines Committee will educate policymakers on the value of universal access to these vaccines and the requisite coverage of the cost.

-- The Medical Home Committee for Adult Women Vaccination will develop and implement recommendations to inform medical
practice guidelines that include routine screening and vaccination.

-- The Health Disparities Committee will strive to ensure that women in communities with higher incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer have equal opportunities to receive the vaccines.

"All women are at risk for cervical cancer. From a women's health perspective, a cervical cancer vaccine is as revolutionary as the birth control pill," said Stanley Gall, M.D., American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' (ACOG's) representative to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices; professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, and Public Health and Information Science, University of Louisville; and Steering Committee member and chair, Medical Home for Adult Women Vaccination Committee, Partnership to End Cervical Cancer. "That we can potentially eliminate most forms of a cancer through a series of vaccinations is a significant milestone in healthcare history."

Said Ciro de Quadros, M.D., M.P.H., president and chief executive officer of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Partnership Steering Committee member, "Comprehensive vaccination programs work - as we've seen with the significant reduction or elimination of smallpox worldwide and measles in the Western Hemisphere. Today, the Partnership is making the commitment to play a leadership role in the campaign to end as much of cervical cancer as can be prevented with these vaccines and screening in this country."

Partnership member organizations:

American College Health Association
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
American Medical Women's Association
American Social Health Association
Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
The Balm In Gilead, Inc.
Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation
Coalition of Labor Union Women
Digene Corporation
GlaxoSmithKline
National Association of County and City Health Officials
National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health
The National Black Nurses Association, Inc.
National Cervical Cancer Coalition
National Council of La Raza
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association
National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition
National Hispanic Medical Association
National Medical Association
Partnership for Prevention
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Sabin Vaccine Institute
Marie Savard, M.D.
Society for Women's Health Research

About cervical cancer:

Cervical cancer is caused by persistent infection with a common and contagious virus, HPV. HPV types 16, 18, 45 and 31 are responsible for 80 percent of all cervical cancers worldwide. Approximately 10,000 cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed and nearly 4,000 women will die from it in the United States this year.

Cervical cancer deaths disproportionately occur in women of certain populations and geographic regions (e.g., African-American women in the South, Hispanic women along the Texas-Mexico border, white women in Appalachia, American Indians of the Northern Plains, Vietnamese American women, Alaska Natives) in the United States. Of the women in the United States who develop cervical cancer, about half have never had a Pap test and an additional 10 percent have not had a Pap in the last five years.

With one vaccine already approved, and another vaccine planned for submission to the FDA for review in the next few months, this disease will be the first cancer with most forms to be truly preventable.

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